Simultaneous determination of benzyl isoquinoline alkaloids in the Embryo Nelumbinis nuciferae by HPLC-PDA

Abstract

A reversed-phase HPLC method was developed for simultaneous determination of armepavine, nor-armepavine, lotussine, liensinine in the Embrios Nelumbo nuciferae as: Column - Phenomenex Gemini  NX RP-C18 (150 x 4.6 mm; 5 μm); Mobile phase (in gradient mode) – Acetonitrile-riethylamine 0.1 % adjusted to pH 9 by acetic acid 2 %; Flow rate - 1 mL/min; Detector – UV (283 nm). Validation by AOAC guideline the method showed high selectivity, linearity range (5 – 200 ppm, R² > 0.999), high accuracy (95.5 - 103.4 %, RSD 1.15 - 1.88 %), precision (RSD < 5 %), and high sensitivity (LOD: 0.01 - 0.80 ppm, LOQ: 0.05 - 2.50 ppm). For practical appliacation, various alcaloids in the embrios of Nelumbo nucifera collected from 12 provinces of Vietnam were analyzed. Quantitative differences were found significant  from one to anther growing area and season. Samples collected from Dong Thap predominantly contained liensinine, whereas those from the central and the north Vietnam provinces showed a higher relative occurrence of lotussine and armepavine, nor-armepavine, respectively.